Saturday, December 5, 2009

Wall Street Journal backs Teodoro

FORMER Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro is the most viable candidate for the presidency next year because he is the only one with a “solid background in law and order,” according to an editor of the Wall Street Journal.

“None of the other front-runners in the 2010 presidential derby has a solid background in law and order,” Brett Decker, the business paper’s opinion editor, said in the daily’s online edition late last month.

He described Teodoro as a dark horse who could be propelled to the top of the pack in case of a “continued erosion of safety in the streets...” following the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao on Nov. 23, and for which the Ampatuan clan is being blamed.

Decker pointed to a “serious potential for escalation of the violence outside of clan warfare” in Mindanao, warning that “Islamist militias could step into the local power vacuum” following the violence there.

“A volatile situation underscores the need for a leader competent in handling law-and-order problems,” he said.

Teodoro was the first to prod the government to arrest the people responsible for the massacre, in which 28 of the 57 killed were journalists.

He also moved to expel the Ampatuans—led by patriarch and Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. and his sons, ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan and Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr.—from the party for their failure to uphold its ideals.

Ampatuan Jr. and four other relatives are now in jail after witnesses pointed to them as the people who had planned and executed the massacre.

Teodoro yesterday urged the Ampatuan clan to stand down to prevent the escalation of violence in Maguindanao and to stop interfering in the investigation of the case.

“The Ampatuans and their supporters must face the full force of the law if they do not stand down and allow the government to proceed with its investigation and takeover of the operations of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,” Teodoro said.